Re: Beat them

["Alla Linetsky" <alinetsky@home.com>]

There is no question that the language of competition is rooted in the
military. There are also non-military examples of cruel language to
describe some very mundane things, e.g. "many ways to skin a cat";
"kill two birds with one stone"... Some feminists have been roundly
criticized for bringing attention to the violence in our everyday
language. I guess it's just our caveman nature still showing through.

I should note, though, that the Russian word for 'beating' someone at
competition has at its root the word 'game'. There is also a 'beating'
equivalent, but it's used only for team sports (referring, possibly,
to a time when the winning team actually beat, or worse, killed, the
losing team).

Alla Linetsky